Question about food anxiety

Featheryfriend

Featheryfriend

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi y'all! Long time no see. The piggy squad have been doing really well and I've been busy with my health, so I haven't been by in a while.

Penny, my initial rescue piggy, has continued to steadily gain weight and now weighs ~1100 grams. Just about double what she weighed when i rescued her! (less than 600 grams.) Other than allergies (the cause of the twitching and eye-squinting she was having for a while there) she is doing beautifully.

However, even though she is being fed very consistently and adequately, her anxiety about food seems worse than ever before. Whenever I am washing/preparing/measuring food, or when she knows it's about time for a meal, she's violently chewing the grids. She's chipping the powder coat off.

We've been trying to teach her to stop by interrupting the behavior (gently touching her nose and saying "no") but really, it would be nice if there was something we could do something to ease the underlying fear of starvation that (I assume) is causing the grid chewing compulsion in the first place. Any ideas?
 
Here are some tips for attention seeking behaviour, but bar biting during food prep is a tough one.
Who is the boss - your guinea pig or you?

In the Tribe it has become a Job that is passed onto another Main Bar Biter once the incumbent passes away...
And everypig is joining in while I make my way round the room with distributing the dinner.
 
This is a tough one, 2 of my main herd bar bite just for a couple of minutes once they see the veg if prepping the meals takes too long... but my other pair eat the correx cage base on purpose if they notice I'm awake and downstairs or home from work for 10 minutes before they get fed- they never do it while I'm out or in bed just if I try make coffee before morning piggy feeds, or have a quick glass of wine before evening piggy feeds! I have on occasion employed a ruthless solution especially with my skinny pig correx attention nibbler that I call "tickle the hippo", if she nibbles the correx I am very kind and friendly but stroke her all over which she hates! Correx nibbles equals tickles and strokes. Most days its a fair match, whether her dislike of tickles and strokes outweighs my desire to drink coffee or wine for a few minutes uninterrupted before my "starving" chubby skinny pig overdoses on eating purple plastic cage walls...! It sounds a bit mean but if she really wants my attention so badly I will tickle and stroke her!
 
I should probably add that they always have a chewable haycube or carrot cottage or cardboard box blocking the correx chewing area and they eat these quite happily... unless the little buggers see me walk past in which case they switch to plastic chewing because they know it will get a reaction!
Bloody diva piggies, Tallulah skinny pig knows she's the boss of her slaves and all I can do to fix it is tickle her or always hand out bonus coriander every time I walk through my own living room- though sometimes I sneak through in my socks to reach the kitchen then make coffee or drink wine in the dark so she doesnt see me, if the lights go on it must be time to feed her...!
 
Thanks for the pointers, guys. First I'll see about putting something chewy in the way of the places where she most often bites the bars. At least she wouldn't be risking a chipped tooth gnawing up some straw mats or some cardboard. Then maybe we humans will try to assert our dominance more with a little game of tickle the hippo and some chin lifts. :D I thought I'd been though that already with her but maybe she's taking another stab at being the boss!

I did noticed my other guinea pigs have learned to copy her...! But they bar bite with only a fraction of the intensity and determination so I'm not worried about them and their little halfhearted nibbles. They're just doing it because Penny starts it up. She is clearly the Main Food Wheeker. Very loud.

That's hilarious picturing you sneaking around in the dark in your own home. XD I only get to drink my coffee because we have a very clear ritual where everyone gets an oxbow vitamin C biscuit first thing in the morning and shuts up for a while, lol.
 
Oh yeah, tickle the hippo works, she was just the right amount of offended and it inspired her to try to behave. I might try that one on my paper-eating pig (that would be Sage) too, next time I catch her devouring a paper bag. Seems like a nice affectionate way to assert dominance - maybe it's a bit like a power groom to them?
 
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